The Piazza

“You think your people will be free? You think you have escaped me? You mortals will have nothing but war, not a moment of peace until a new God of War rises to replace me.” Discuss the Sundered Empire featured in the Chainmail campaign setting, as it relates to pen & paper RPGs, here.

Over in my "What happened to the equicephs?" topic, Icarus suggested that the Cult of the Black Moon, from Black Moon Chronicles, might fit well as an organisation in the past of Chainmail that occupied the Drazen's Horde, Naresh, and Ahmut's Legion areas. Here is what he posted, and my reply:

Big Mac wrote:

Icarus wrote:IMC, I use the Chainmail and the Blackmoon Chronicles material ... the Free States are what's left of the once-proud Empire of Lhynn, and Drazen's Horde, Naresh, and Ahmut's Legion esserntially together comprise what would be the Clut of the Black Moon. .... Altenburg ans Syzygie are cities in Thalos ... there's not really much other than making up new stuff. The ones that are tribal are already evident, I guess?

Perhaps it would be worth starting up a new topic to discuss what Empire of Lhynn factions would work as pre-God War tribes in the region. (It might also be worth having a topic to discuss how the Cult of the Black Moon could devolve into Drazen's Horde, Naresh and Ahmut's Legion. I presume that some sort of major collapse would be needed with Stratis's death causing a resurgence in the "Children of the Black Moon". It might even be fun to have an actual Children of the Black Moon cult that wants to unify the area, as part of the push to create a Black Moon war god.)

(We were also talking about the former equiceph societies and tribes (how tribes would work in Western Oerik).

But I thought it would be good to have a look at the Cult of the Black Moon separately. What is it? Who controls it? And how can it fit in with Chainmail?

Icarus wrote:IMC, I use the Chainmail and the Blackmoon Chronicles material ... the Free States are what's left of the once-proud Empire of Lhynn; Drazen's Horde, Naresh, and Ahmut's Legion essentially together comprise what would be the Cult of the Black Moon. .... Altenburg and Syzygie are cities in Thalos ... there's not really much other than making up new stuff. The ones that are tribal are already evident, I guess?

BigMac wrote:Perhaps it would be worth starting up a new topic to discuss what Empire of Lhynn factions would work as pre-God War tribes in the region. (It might also be worth having a topic to discuss how the Cult of the Black Moon could devolve into Drazen's Horde, Naresh and Ahmut's Legion. I presume that some sort of major collapse would be needed with Stratis's death causing a resurgence in the "Children of the Black Moon". It might even be fun to have an actual Children of the Black Moon cult that wants to unify the area, as part of the push to create a Black Moon war god.)
But I thought it would be good to have a look at the Cult of the Black Moon separately. What is it? Who controls it? And how can it fit in with Chainmail?

So ... I guess I'll continue my thoughts on the Cult of the Black Moon, as compared to the factions of the Sundered Empire.

I don't necessarily think of the Cult of the Black Moon as a nation or faction. ... I think of it more like a hidden religion, or something, akin to worship of any of the banned evil religions in the Flanaess. The Horned Society is another example, as is the Empire of Iuz. Depending on how united one wants to make the Cult, it's easy enough to see how they would loosely combine since there are common themes amongst the "evil" factions, and some even share races. For example, there are orcs and half-orcs in Drazen's Horde and in Ahmut's Legion. And there's minotaurs and zombie minotaurs in Naresh and Ahmut's Legion. All of the "typical"evil races are represented in the BMC, so the Chainmail faction races easily convert. ... orcs, orges, goblins, hobgoblins, gnolls, minotaurs, ettins, bugbears, various demons, various undead, etc.

... if one wanted to bring Haazheel Thorne from the BMC to GH, it wouldn't be *too* much of a stretch to say that he's still around, running the cult. But, this would be a *major* NPC, most likely somewhere along the lines of Iuz himself. It would also mean that he's likely to be thousands of years old. (Which isn't a bad theme for a baddie like him.) If one wanted to make the region clearly a battle between good and evil with a united Cult to face, I would recommend Haazheel Thorne being the erstaz leader of the Cult.

There are several leaders of the various factions, as well as warlords, lieutenants, and such under them. ... if one is inclined to use the Cult in a contemporary Western Oerik game, I don't think that it's unreasonable to RP some of those leaders (or all of them) as belonging to the Cult:Ahmut's Legion

Icarus wrote:So ... I guess I'll continue my thoughts on the Cult of the Black Moon, as compared to the factions of the Sundered Empire.

Yes please!

Icarus wrote:I don't necessarily think of the Cult of the Black Moon as a nation or faction. ... I think of it more like a hidden religion, or something, akin to worship of any of the banned evil religions in the Flanaess. The Horned Society is another example, as is the Empire of Iuz. Depending on how united one wants to make the Cult, it's easy enough to see how they would loosely combine since there are common themes amongst the "evil" factions, and some even share races. For example, there are orcs and half-orcs in Drazen's Horde and in Ahmut's Legion. And there's minotaurs and zombie minotaurs in Naresh and Ahmut's Legion. All of the "typical"evil races are represented in the BMC, so the Chainmail faction races easily convert. ... orcs, orges, goblins, hobgoblins, gnolls, minotaurs, ettins, bugbears, various demons, various undead, etc.

... if one wanted to bring Haazheel Thorne from the BMC to GH, it wouldn't be *too* much of a stretch to say that he's still around, running the cult. But, this would be a *major* NPC, most likely somewhere along the lines of Iuz himself. It would also mean that he's likely to be thousands of years old. (Which isn't a bad theme for a baddie like him.) If one wanted to make the region clearly a battle between good and evil with a united Cult to face, I would recommend Haazheel Thorne being the erstaz leader of the Cult.

If Haazheel Thorne was thousands of years old, I guess he might need to be something like a lich.

Another way to go would be to merge both your ideas, and make BMC the past of Chainmail, but use Haazheel Thorne as the current leader of the Cult of the Black Moon.

Icarus wrote:There are several leaders of the various factions, as well as warlords, lieutenants, and such under them. ... if one is inclined to use the Cult in a contemporary Western Oerik game, I don't think that it's unreasonable to RP some of those leaders (or all of them) as belonging to the Cult:Ahmut's Legion

Ahmut, human lich necromancer?,

Petrus, Human shadow Priest

Bolkart, Half-orcish Fighter

Drazen's Horde

Drazen, Gnoll Fighter

Voja, Hobgoblin Adept

Izrock, Hobgoblni Fighter

Galtai, hobgoblin warrior-priest (splinter faction)

Naresh

Jangir, Priest-King: half-fiend gnoll warrior-priest

Dragomir, Gnoll Ranger

Robu, Teifling Fighter

I was thinking that the Cult of the Black Moon could either be brought in as another faction (if BMC was set in the same era as Chainmail) or a past faction (if BMC was made to be part of the history of the Sundered Empire, as you have recently been suggesting). But it looks like you are suggesting that the cult might have a following inside three of Chainmail's factions.

I suppose that means that potentially the Cult of the Black Moon could unify Ahmut's Legion, Drazen's Horde and Naresh into a single force.

Some of the Chainmail canon seems to suggest that factions will not work together, but I guess that the discovery of Stratis's magic items could herald the start of an endgame where the factions start to swallow each other up.

Perhaps Haazheel Thorne could find some sort of way to "control" three of Stratis's artefacts, to give him power over the other three factions.

I'll have to try to get hold of Black Moon Chronicles and give it a read, so that I can get a feel of the vibe of the story and see if I can get the same sort of inspiration that you do.